In 2016, Donald Trump said his economic plan could create 25 million jobs over the next decade. During his first occupation of the White House, the United States lost 2.67 million jobs. President Joe Biden’s economic plan could have created 25 million jobs in a decade; under just four years of Bidenomics, the U.S. economy added 16.14 million jobs. But since January 2025, Trump has put the brakes on that recovery with DOGE, tariffs, deportations, war, and other capricious stupidity. With a net increase since January 2025 of only 348,000 jobs, Trump remains well over two million jobs in the red. The only President in the last hundred years to oversee a net loss in jobs was Herbert Hoover.
Curiously, amidst a Presidency that is built on the misogyny of brittle male egos, the winners in what little job gains are happening are mostly women:
Of the 369,000 jobs the Labor Department says were created since the start of Trump’s second term, nearly all — 348,000 of them — went to women, with only 21,000 going to men. That’s nearly 17 times as many jobs filled by women as by men.
The lopsidedness was driven by huge growth in health care, where women hold nearly 80% of jobs. Over the past 12 months, health care alone added 390,000 jobs, more than in the economy overall, making up for job losses elsewhere [Andrea Hsu, “Women Are Getting Most of the New Jobs. What’s Going on with Men?” NPR: Morning Edition, 2026.04.10].
Meanwhile (and let’s trade in stereotypes as deeply as Trumpists do), macho-man jobs in construction and manufacturing keep shrinking, despite Trump’s campaign vows to the contrary. And MAGA thinking (if anything that motivates Trump voters can be called “thinking”) prevents men from going where the jobs are:
The men most hurt by the MAGA economy’s broken promises are the same ones most culturally resistant to the jobs actually on offer. Prime-age male labor force participation—men between 25 and 54—has trended downward for decades, with the share of men sitting entirely outside the labor force holding at roughly 11%. That figure has remained stubbornly elevated even as the broader post-COVID economy recovered.
The mismatch is stark. Health Resources and Services Administration and Department of Health and Human Services data through 2025 show RN demand grew 3% while supply grew only 1%, producing an actual deficit of roughly 295,800 nurses nationwide—a figure that falls within McKinsey’s 2022 forecast of a 200,000 to 450,000 shortfall. Yet men make up just 12% to 13% of the registered nursing workforce—a figure that has barely budged despite slow gains since the 1970s, when male nurses made up just 2.7% of the profession.
…Teaching tells a similar story. Men accounted for just 23% of the public school teaching workforce in the 2024–25 school year, a share barely changed since 2011–12. At the elementary level, the figure collapses to 11%.
The irony is sharp. The same working-class men the MAGA economy promised to rescue are sitting out a hiring boom in the fastest-growing sectors of the U.S. economy because those jobs are considered women’s work. Meanwhile, the factories they’re waiting to return to keep shedding workers.
The hard-hat renaissance isn’t coming. The stethoscope and the lesson plan are already here [Nick Lichtenberg, “Trump’s Macho MAGA Economy Is a Bust. But There Are Plenty of High-Paying Jobs for Men—in Nursing and Teaching,” Fortune via Yahoo Finance, 2026.04.14].
I sense a cycle: Men vote for Trump to assert their masculinity. Trump wrecks the masculine job market. The over-asserted sense of masculinity keeps men from seeking jobs in the women-dominated fields that keep growing (and the cultural undercard here: women keep doing the hard work that needs to be done while men pose and moan). Men slip further behind economically, feel emasculated, and become even more prone to assert their fragile masculinity by voting for misogynist policy dipshits like Trump
Wow—toxic masculinity really is a thing… and it appears to be toxic for men’s economic well-being.
This is why grudznick and my good friend Bob never voted for Mr. Trump and emphasize looksmaxxing over misogyning.
In 2018 South Dakota ranked 50th in women’s workplace environment and 38th overall in WalletHub’s Best & Worst States. The red moocher state climbed to 32nd in 2019 but sank again in 2020 to surf the bottom for women’s equality at 38th and 41st in empowerment.
In 2022, of the 25 best states for women 22 of them were blue according to rankings from WalletHub. My home state of South Dakota held 51st place for the number of women who own businesses, 49th in percentage of women who voted in 2020 but tied for 1st with North Dakota for lowest unemployment among women. The bottom 8 states for women’s well-being were red.
In 2023 20 of the 25 best states for women were blue but 17 of the worse states for women were red. North and South Dakota were still tied for first place in rates of employed women while New Mexico is still too high in rates of women living in poverty. South Dakota was 50th in women-owned businesses and 41st in women’s health care and safety.
Last year Sioux Falls is the 96th best town for women and Rapid City is 163rd. South Dakota is still 51st in the percentage of women-owned businesses.
The alpha boys don’t wanna be a nurse or teacher? Let them. Its much more fun to watch them form turning points. They are blithering idiots after all.
Where I live construction is doing well, but manufacturing is ailing. You are correct that health care affiliated jobs are booming. I know a number of people in helth affiliated fields employed at the nearby hospital. They are always look for new folks to hire.
I had a nurse tell me that most jobs at the nearby hospital as well as in the booming hme health care area are AI-proof. I think that probably also applies to teaching.
47th best state for teachers, South Dakota is 50th in budgeting for schools and not only hates public education, the state’s dead last in high school financial literacy and 50th in financial education performance and access. Teachers’ wages in red states like South Dakota surf the bottom because Republicans are Balkanizing education amid a fight over ideological purity and in my home state academic freedom is under attack from another reactionary governor. Republican former governor, Kristi Noem is directly responsible for the closing of Presentation College where many of South Dakota’s teachers and nurses were trained.
This morning at the Conservatives with Common Sense breakfasting, the Opening Rant will include a tale about what jobs are AI proof. Spoiler: Teacher is not amongst them, and we have a teacher joining us to talk about wages.
I have to admit that my first reaction to the headline was, “Oh, is Trump planning to dump Melania and marry someone else?”
Well Governor Roden announced that he wants a munitions factory in S.D. That will give men a chance to earn some money. I’m sure it will pay well but won’t be unionized.
Yes, let’s build something that kills rather than something that’s positive. S.D. state sponsored of course, with the use of tax dollars.
As long as it gives men jobs…. it’s okay right?